“The politics of teacher strikes shift over time, but in every generation, their leaders have forged ties to broader social movements,” notes Goldstein, who elsewhere described the story as a 1200-word version of her book, “The Teacher Wars.”

New York magazine’s Rebecca Traister praised it for situating current events in the history of teacher unionism. Colleague (and awesome compliment-giver) Erica Green quipped, “Yea. It was the jam.”

A big part of the interest in the story has to do with the notion that teachers in other states — OK, AZ, & KY are said to be in the mix — are going to emulate West Virginia. That seems pretty speculative to me, but I understand the appeal of writing to that angle.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

With so much education news, and so many great stories being produced, it’s hard to fit them all in!

This is the web archive version of the weekly newsletter, Best of the Week, which comes out on Fridays. Sign up here to get it first.

NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT GRAPHIC IMAGES

Screengrab of social media from inside Parkland, which many media outlets decided not to share with readers.

For better or worse, explicit images of the Parkland school shooting are out there. Graphic, disturbing crime scene images are among them. Given Florida’s open records law and the nature of the Internet, they are likely to get out. The only question is whether mainstream news outlets will sit on their hands or help readers understand what they’re seeing.

That’s the issue addressed in this week’s column from The Grade, which makes the case that mainstream news outlets need to reconsider their traditional ban on graphic images of injured or dying American. The piece includes a range of viewpoints from several journalists who have written about gun violence, as well as from Poynter and Columbia experts.

Note that there are links to some disturbing visuals but nothing actually presented in the piece itself.

MEDIA TIDBITS

📰 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: Thursday was International Women’s Day. The 74 celebrated by profiling Ella Flagg Young, the first female superintendent of a major urban school district in 1909. The NYT celebrated by publishing belated obituaries for women including journalist Ida B. Wells.

📰 WOMEN OF COLOR IN JOURNALISM: The news of the week wasn’t all good for women journalists of color: “People of color make nearly 40% of the U.S. population, and women make up more than half,” noted NPR about a new report. “But women of color make up less than 8% of U.S. print newsrooms and just over 6% of local radio staff.” See more report coverage from the Nieman Lab and Poynter.

“This report, and these numbers, on the status of women of color in journalism, should be an embarrassment to our industry. It likely won’t be, though,” tweetedNikole Hannah Jones. “Unacceptable,” Mónica Rhor commented. “But it’s been unacceptable for decades and nothing has changed.”

📰 INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS, UNITE! NICAR18 has been taking place this week, and at least a few familiar names have been there. They include EdWeek’s Francisco Vara-Orta and Alex Harwin, and WNYC’s former education reporter Beth Fertig. Anyone else? Can we see the deck?

📰 SCHOOLS AND SHOOTERS: The Parkland shooting raises questions about the role of schools in dealing with students who may pose a threat to campus safety. Suspend them, support them, refer them to law enforcement, place them in alternative settings? EWA has a piece about several of these issues worth checking out.

📰 POOR NYC REPORTERS: It’s been a rough two weeks for NYC education reporters trying to keep up with events without getting out in front of them. First, Alberto Carvalho turned out not to be leaving Miami. (Only after the fact did we find out that he’d backed out of previous job offer and that those who’d covered him weren’t surprised he backed out.) Now — after everyone wrote their initial stories — it’s being reported that his replacement nominee, Houston’s Richard Carranza, has #metoo allegations against him from his stint in San Francisco. Oops! According to Chalkbeat, City Hall knew about the allegations but is dismissing them as false.

📰 CHALKBEAT AT SXSW: With a whopping seven staffers in attendance, Chalkbeat was all in at this year’s SXEDU. A major focus was Chalkbeat’s Great American Teach-Off, which co-founder Elizabeth Green says was born out of her 2015 keynote at the conference. It’s an impressive accomplishment, especially given the costs of implementing the Teach-Off and that Chalkbeat wasn’t a media sponsor. “We had an amazing experience that also leaves us with a bunch of ideas for next year,” said Green.

📰 RAZZIES… FOR EDUCATION JOURNALISM: Last weekend’s Razzies — the annual awards for the worst movies of the yearthat are given out on Oscar weekend — is a good reminder that, the 2nd Annual Edu-Razzies: Worst Education Journalism Of The Year are coming out later this year. Check out last year’s version. This is a list you do not want to be on.

PEOPLE, JOBS, & AWARDS

🔥Spotted at SXSWEDU: It was fun seeing Chalkbeat’s Elizabeth Green moderating a panel with Steve Perry and Robert Enlow, and also seeing NBC’s Rehema Ellis moderating a panel with Howard Fuller, Chris Stewart, and Margaret Fortune. I missed Rebecca Klein’s panel with Eric Waldo and kept narrowly missing EdSurge’s Ton Wan, but I got to see EdWeek’s Sean Cavanaugh heading an ESSA panel with David DeSchryver. Jessica Lahey and I finally met in real life. And EdSurge’s Jenny Abamu and I got to chat for a few minutes as well. It’s always great to see and meet education reporters.

🔥BBC Scotland asked WLRN reporter Jessica Bakeman to participate in their series of “reporter’s notebook” reflections. She wrote an essay about what it has been like to cover the Parkland shooting. You can hear it here.

🔥Former Slate education columnist Laura Moser made it through the primaries and is advancing to the runoff — despite (or is it because of?) the meddling of the DCCC. Read all about it in Vox.

🔥U.S. News & World Report is shutting down its opinion section — good riddance, I say — and pushing beat reporters like Lauren Camera away toward more real-world coverage, according to this Erik Wemple writeup of a recent announcement. Very exciting. Wish more outlets would do the same.

🔥It gave me great pleasure to Twitter-introduce Michael Hobbes and William Brennan , each of whom has written about the 1996 “Ebonics” panic and recent reconsideration of what some still call “Black English.” Brennan’s Atlantic piece is here. Hobbes’ HuffPost Highline video and essay are here. Read their Twitter exchange here.

⏰ Have you heard about the Pineapple media Fellowship for Underrepresented Voices in Podcasting? The fellowship is a full-time, producer-in-residence positionthat pays $3,000 a month and provides weekly mentorship meetings and introductions to people in the audio world. A heads up: The deadline, April 15, 2018, is right before Tax Day, so get your information in early.

KICKER

A Philando Castile charity wiped out school lunch debt in his old district, reportedMother Jones: “Thousands of school kids in Minnesota can now eat school lunches without incurring more debt, thanks to Philando Castile,” write MoJo’s Jamilah King.

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Phi Delta Kappan offers timely, relevant, and provocative insights on K-12 education policy, research, curriculum, and professional development. Kappan readers include new and veteran teachers, graduate students, school and district administrators, university faculty members (researchers and teacher educators), and policy makers.